The bypass budget is so-called because, under the National Cancer Act of 1971, NCI's budget request is submitted directly to the president, bypassing reviews by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. In recent years, Congress has awarded NCI more than the president requested but less than the institute has sought.
At $4.72 billion, the president's budget request for NCI is the largest among all the NIH institutes and centers. In contrast, government support for cancer research in Great Britain last year totaled about £160 million, according to the Medical Research Council.
The NIH institutes and centers, including NCI, are expected to benefit from the positive momentum in Congress to complete the doubling of NIH's budget, requested at $23.3 billion for next year. Nevertheless, the NCI request falls short of Bush's goal to increase the cancer institute's budget to $5.1 billion by fiscal 2003.1 ...
